6.0 Zerg Imbalance?

6.1 Overview

The more I play Starcraft, the more I become convinced that the Zerg have a variety of advantages that simply outweigh the abilities of the other two races. I came to this conclusion after a friend and I had gone from losing mightily against the computer to winning easily as soon as I started playing the Zerg. One might claim to the contrary, of course, that I am simply more comfortable as a player with the Zerg; i.e., perhaps I play the Terran or Protoss forces very poorly. But I do not think this to be the case. I have read the various strategy guides, taken their tips to heart, and have chalked up a number of wins with the other races, but the situation remains the same. At any rate, my reasons for thinking that the Zerg have such a decisive advantage are as follows.

1. Zerg have the fastest initial startup because they can build drones more quickly (i.e., up to 3 at a time) than Terrans or Protoss can build their harvesters.
2. Because Zerg harvesting is faster, they are the first to have ground units. They require only a spawning pool to start pumping out zerglings, and while zerglings are admittedly weak units, having them first is sometimes all that matters.
3. Zerg are the only race with cheap, reasonably powerful air units. Terran wraiths are too fragile for their cost and Protoss scouts are doubly so.
4. In the middle game, Zerg are the only race capable of winning with just one unit, namely, mutalisks. See my notes for an example. Protoss zealots must be accompanied by dragoons and preferably templar; Terran marines must be accompanied by siege tanks. Zerg need only build hordes of mutalisks.
5. Zerg anti-air structures (viz., spore colonies) are twice as tough (400 hp) as Terran missile towers (200 hp) and Protoss photon cannons (100 hp 100 sp); they cost more (200/0 including the drone), but they make it far more difficult to assault a Zerg base from the air. For example, spore colonies require two blasts from a Terran Yamato gun whereas missile turrets or photon cannons are destroyed with a single shot. This would not be so problematic save for the fact that…
6. Zerg are the only race with powerful, long-range air-to-ground units. Terran Yamato guns fire too infrequently, and Protoss carriers are too expensive and too difficult to control to be nearly as effective as resource-equivalent Zerg guardians.
7. Zerg build much faster than any other race. Hatcheries build three units in parallel whereas Terran or Protoss forces build one unit per appropriate structure.
8. This parallelism renders Zerg less vulnerable to "peon rush" tactics.
9. Zerg can move troops like no other race. Their nydus canals can move any number of units across any distance near-instantaneously with complete safety.
10. Zerg reconnaissance is available cheaper, simpler and earlier than for Terrans or Protoss. Terran spider mines require a factory and destroy themselves at the first sign of an enemy. Protoss must climb the tech tree and produce gas-expensive observers. Zerglings cost only 25/0 each and stay burrowed unobtrusively.
11. Zerg get mobile detectors for free. Whereas Protoss and Terrans must have observers (25/75) and science vessels (100/225) in the field, the Zerg may simply bring overlords (100/0), which they had to build for control anyway.
12. Zerg get transports almost for free. Terrans must build dropships (100/100) and Protoss must build shuttles (200/0); Zerg need only upgrade the overlords they had to build for control anyway.
13. It is much easier to expand as Zerg than any other race because their expansions require a smaller commitment. Whereas Terrans or Protoss need to take plenty of troops to an expansion spot, Zerg need only supply enough to last until a nydus canal is established. Of course Zerg do not have nydus canals in the early game, but as soon as a hatchery is completed, it can begin producing troops immediately. In comparison, Terrans and Protoss must either build more barracks/gateways or walk/fly reinforcements across the map.

It might be the case that the Zerg advantage is limited largely to the early game, but in my experience it is the early game that is most crucial. A clever Zerg Cerebrate pushes these various advantages so that by the time his Terran and Protoss foes are finally ready, he has more bases, higher tech, more units, etc. It seems that genuine balance obtains only after the other races have climbed their tech trees completely, and it is frequently the case that the game is over before this occurs—usually in favor of the Zerg. And even if the opponents survive to see the late game, it often matters little.

Brood War brings the Zerg much closer to parity with the other races. Considering the points above, the slowdown in larvae production alone largely nullifies items (1), (2), (7) and (8) while ameliorating (13) insofar as the slowdown makes it much harder to immediately populate an expansion. Item (3) is still true, but it is diminished somewhat by the same factors that affect (4), namely, that the other races have been given new units for dealing with mutalisks (e.g., Terran marines with medics are devastating against mutalisks as are Protoss corsairs). Items (5), (6), (9), (10), (11) and (12) are still troubling, but experience shows that the new units and balance adjustments applied to existing units attenuate the problem greatly. My remaining concerns about Zerg dominance regard the early game versus Protoss.

6.2 Zerg Dominates Protoss in the Early Game?

My remaining concern regarding Zerg dominance after the release of Brood War involves the Protoss early game. And this concern follows from the "early win" strategies available to the Zerg. In my estimation, there are only a few strategies available to Zerg against Protoss when seeking an early win.

1. The death on the ground (a.k.a., hordes of hydralisks) strategy seeks to overwhelm the enemy on the ground with the Zerg's all-purpose early game unit—accompanied generally by a squad of zerglings for cannon fodder. Hydralisks are very powerful en masse and this strategy leverages that fact before enemy technology provides an effective counter (e.g., templar, reavers, etc.). This strategy generally requires securing a single expansion as early as possible in order to provide the minerals and vespene necessary to pull it off.
2. The death from above strategy seeks to leverage the potential Protoss weakness against air units in the early game. If a Cerebrate can get even three mutalisks to the enemy base prior to dragoons or photon cannons having been produced (or past the existing dragoons and cannons), the game might as well be over. The mutalisks can quickly kill most (if not all) of the enemy probes with impunity. This generally involves building 4 - 5 sunken colonies to defend against the possibility of a Protoss rush on the ground while securing a single expansion in order to provide the minerals and vespene necessary to pull it off.
3. The death from below strategy seeks to leverage the potential Protoss lack of detection in the early game. If a Cerebrate can get even one lurker to the enemy base prior to photon cannons or observers, the game again might as well be over. This strategy is not quite as demanding as the other two insofar as it may be pursued without securing an expansion; doing so, however, will leave one in a weaker position if it fails.

There is, of course, latitude for variation, but I suspect that all the early-win strategies for Zerg vs. Protoss will ultimately boil down to one of the three provided. And while not one of these three strategies is individually unstoppable, it might be the case that they are jointly impossible to beat.

More specifically, each one of the three strategies requires a very specific counter. To stop death on the ground, an Executor must either build loads of zealots or get reavers very quickly. To stop death from above, an Executor must either build lots of photon cannons, lots of dragoons or get templar very quickly. And finally, to stop death from below, an Executor must either build very well-placed (placement is key) photon cannons or get templar/observers very quickly. There is admittedly some commonality here (e.g., photon cannons and templar are obvious in their overlap), but suffice it to say that pursuing the proper buildup against the Zerg is utterly crucial for Protoss.

At this point, the objector may claim that proper reconnaissance solves the problem. But while this may arguably be the case, it is rarely possible against any competent Cerebrate, to actually perform reconnaissance in the early game. More to the point, the greatly improved sunken colonies make it nearly impossible to get any data (Terrans, of course, have no such problems). For example, if one uses a probe for reconnaissance, one will either have to send it so early that it will gain no useful insight into which of the three strategies the Cerebrate is pursuing, or it will die long before it gets near enough to see anything courtesy of sunken colonies and/or zerglings. On the other hand, if one uses zealots, then one will have to send either sufficient numbers to get a good look at the enemy base, which usually leaves one's main base poorly defended, or send only a couple, in which case they will again die long before they gain any truly useful data. Reconnaissance is either preventable or too costly in the early game, and thus it will not do as a solution.

A second suggestion might be to hit the enemy first. Shutting down expansions before they are fully up and running or dealing non-trivial damage to the enemy's base might easily serve to derail any one of the three strategies. But this also fails for one simple reason: zealots are the backbone of any early-game Protoss assault force. And without leg upgrades, they will not survive. They die very quickly to hydralisks, they die just as quickly by sunken colonies with mutalisks, and they again die almost as quickly by lurker spines and the various other forces available with the death from below strategy. And it is usually possible to implement one of the above strategies prior to the leg upgrades being available. Protoss are not able to project force across anything larger than a very small map in the early game, whereas the Zerg do not share this limitation. And on a map sufficiently small for the Protoss to extend force early enough to do some good, the Zerg may simply opt instead for…

6.3 The Unbeatable Zerg Rush

There is a Zerg rushing strategy that is utterly unbeatable under appropriate conditions as near as I can determine. To execute this maneuver, follow these steps exactly.

1. Assign all four initial drones to minerals and start scouting with the overlord.
2. Once you have 150 minerals, use one of the four drones to build a spawning pool.
3. When you have another 50 minerals, build one more drone.
4. When the spawning pool finishes, you should have just enough to build six zerglings.
5. Once the zerglings are complete, send them to destroy the enemy.

If the zerglings have to cross a small map, they will arrive roughly when a Terran player builds his first marine or in the middle of a Protoss player's warping his first zealot. In either case, six zerglings can kill the marine/zealot, kill most or all of the SCVs and usually take out the bunker/gateway as well. And even if the enemy has somehow produced more units, simply run past them and destroy the harvesters instead; it is almost always possible to cripple the enemy economy if not win the game outright. In the meantime, one may be building more zerglings back home as well as drones, overlords, etc. The game is essentially over. This strategy depends entirely, of course, upon knowing (or at least having a good idea) where the enemy is located. On larger maps, this maneuver is not only generally ineffective, but it usually leaves the Zerg seriously vulnerable to attack and should not be attempted.